Five supply chain strategies for business continuity during a crisis

January 2, 2019

1.5 million homes and businesses

lost power during Hurricane Michael.

Recent natural disasters have taken an unprecedented toll on U.S. communities from coast to coast. California suffered the most deadly and costly wildfires in state history. Storm surges and flooding from Hurricane Florence in September triggered emergency declarations in five southeastern states. Roughly a month later, Hurricane Michael slammed Florida’s panhandle with Category 4 winds at landfall, subsequently leaving more than 1.5 million homes and businesses without power, with outages extending inland all the way to Virginia.

During such events, hospitals, health systems and pharmacies can’t wait for the “all-clear” signal to resume caring for their patients. That’s why healthcare personnel, supply chain infrastructure and emergency procedures stand at the ready to deliver life-saving medications and supplies amidst all types of weather-related or man-made disasters.

Based on our experience keeping those lines open, we see the following practices as the keys to ensuring that those in need get critical medications and supplies during an emergency:

Hospitals, health systems and pharmacies can’t wait for the 'all-clear' signal to resume caring for their patients.

Sean Halligan

Senior Vice President, Supply Chain

1. Prepare:

Institute emergency response plans and communicate them to key partners for proper synchronization. Ensuring that headquarter teams, facilities, employees and customers have a plan is critical. Communication is key – make sure there are various means of communication; satellite phone communications can proceed even if an entire region loses power and cellular capabilities. Key leaders at each facility should have a satellite phone charged and ready for use at all times. When an event materializes, schedule “T-minus” calls with regional facilities to determine who may be in harm’s way. Pre-position support when possible with tangible supplies and materials including temperature-controlled trailers near impacted areas, fuel trucks and generators at the ready, etc. When it’s possible to anticipate an event like a hurricane, stock inventory in advance so that additional days of critical supplies are available, even if areas end up being cut off from transit routes. With proper inventory planning, teams can assess and prioritize build-up of specific products for use during the emergency.

2. Respond:

When an event materializes, communicate with clear points of contact and ownership. Disciplined execution of event response calls ensures needed support is provided and desired outcomes for all customers are achieved.

3. Connect:

Establish key points of contact pre-event to map out clear communication plans and hours of operation with your teams, customers and local officials. Print out contact details as computers and electricity may not be available. Through communication with customers and local officials, you can assess the situation in the impact zone and determine which delivery routes are open to get supplies to customers.

4. Flex:

A person’s health in these situations can’t wait for the weather to subside. Your team needs to stand close by to ensure that you can respond quickly and with agility to an event. Often, out-of-the-box thinking is necessary to make sure you’re ready to respond during a crisis. During Hurricane Florence, when floodwaters accounted for much of the damage, we were prepared to contract for use of low-profile airboats to make deliveries to sites cut off by flooding. While this did not end up being necessary to implement, we now know that it’s an option and have added it to our playbook for a response to flooding.

5. Learn:

Every event is different and our team has learned from each event. It’s critical to conduct post-event recaps with your teams and customers to ensure you adjust plans. We have shared those learnings across the organization and we work together to help with planning around the country when the possibility of a natural disaster is imminent.

In most cases, communities eventually recover from catastrophic events, but patients continue to need their medications and supplies. With proper planning, all members of the supply chain can be quick to respond to crisis situations, providing critical medications and products to keep those communities informed and supplied with what they need when they need it.

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